The Ambush
by LovelyBeats
Summary: This story was the result of a CollabFic event at /r/RWBYOC between me and /u/SadPandaFace00. This written intermittently by us both over the course of several hours. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out and after some editing, I decided It'd make a good first submission to Hope you like it!


The Ambush

Collabouraters: LovelyBeats, SadPandaFace00, Meyri

Ruby adjusted her scope and kept a close watch on the alley below. Next to her on the rooftop lay the ivory heiress, curled up in a sleeping bag. Her breath came soft and slow, steaming in the cold night air. Weiss didn't seem to mind the cold the way the rest of the team did.

Down below was Blake and Yang's position. She couldn't see them from here, but she knew they were there. She knew they'd be watching and waiting in the stillness of the night just like Ruby and Weiss.

Ruby tugged her cloak a little tighter, the hood flipped up against the cold. They'd been lying in wait for almost two days and their target would be here tonight.

She was breathless with anticipation...

_Roman Torchwick_. That name was the only thing on Ruby's mind.

She felt her heartbeat quicken its pace, unsure if what she was feeling was excitement, anxiety, or something in between.

She had to hold back to not shoot when the criminal kingpin came into vision on her scope. The mission has begun.

_You're not getting away this time_

At a quick nudge, Weiss was awake, alert and attentive. She saw the shadowy figures moving to the entrance of the alley and pulled out her scroll to send word to Blake and Yang. The duo on the ground would serve as the distraction while she and Ruby strike from above.

Roman slowled at his companion over his shoulder. "They better be here this time" He sneered, cracking his knuckles and neck.

Blake felt her scroll vibrate in her pocket. She read the message and peered around the corner.

Her eyes being well suited to low-light environments, she could clearly make out the features of Torchwick's outlandishly bombastic getup. Next to him was the secondary target. A White Fang Lieutenant known only as 'Freddy'.

Blake felt Yang move up. A reassuring presence behind her. When Yang heard her stir, she knew it was time. They donned their disguises and emerged from their hiding places to meet their quarries.

"Finally. Do you know how long I've been waiting for you?" He asked, "It's been two whole minutes! Do try to arrive on time. Now, do you have what we asked for this time, or are you trying to make _her_ angry?" Roman asked, not seeing these two were different from the people they had met with last time.

Blake knew the plan down to the last detail.

Her fingers curled around Gambol Shroud's hilt, hidden under the cloak that served as her disguise.

She had half her team perched on high, waiting on the cue to strike.

She had Yang, burning and fearless beside her.

But her hands were shaking and her heart was in her throat.

Roman's frown deepened. "Well? Are you going to answer me?" He asked her, cane in-hand, his finger close to the trigger just in case.

Ruby bit her lip as she lined up the shot on Roman, making sure to stay hidden as she did.

Crescent Rose cracked like lightning

And the world went to chaos.

In a flash of blue, Freddy was frozen in a chunk of ice from the waist down, and Roman's cane flew from his hand and clattered to the floor. Blake and Yang produced their weapons, and opened fire. There was no dodging in a closed space like this, so most of their shots hit home.

Freddie's chainsword roared amidst Ember Cilica's explosion and Gambol Shroud's gunshots as he frantically tried to cut himself free.

Roman, surprised, unarmed outmatched, and critically low on aura from the gunshots turned to run...

As he ran, Gambol Shroud lashed out to catch his leg and yank him cursing to the hard ground.

"Little brat" He said, cursing under his breath. He could barely reach Melodic Cudgel, but he gripped it and rolled onto his back, aiming it at Blake as she closed in on him.

He leveled his weapon at her face and his finger tightened around the trigger

just as Yang was within arm's reach.

Yang kicked the cane out of the way and the shot went wide. A brilliant dust round cracked against the brick wall of the adjacent building, throwing up a thick cloud of dirt and dust. The plume caught in Blake's and Yang's throats and Blocked Ruby's line of sight. Ruby snarled in frustration. Their advantage was slipping away. The time for sniping was done, so she uncoiled Crescent Rose into scythe mode.

Blake may have had the upper hand, but Torchwick still outweighed her.

He grabbed hold of Gambol Shroud's ribbon and yanked. The other end of the ribbon was wrapped around her arm, so Blake lurched forward into Torchwick's fist.

She was stunned just long enough for Torchwick to leave the alley where his multicoloured associate was waiting...

Neo grinned, and they both nodded at each other as she stayed behind him to cover his retreat. She could teleport away whenever she wanted, so it didn't matter to her that she was almost sacrificing herself to let him go. She then headed towards the others, grinning at Yang specifically.

_Not this time_

Blake had a score to settle.

"Yang! You deal with the henchman. I'm going after Torchwick."

Yang glared at her new opponent. "No problem". She expelled her empty shells with a _bang _and had two fresh belts loaded into Ember Celica before the shells hit to the ground.

Blake dashed after her quarry as the two began to square off.

* * *

><p>Freddy already had one leg free from his prison of ice. His chainsword <em>roared <em>and chunks of ice were scattering across the alley. Ruby and Weiss knew they had to make a quick end to this. Their teammates needed them.

"Cover me!" Ruby shouted. She pointed Crescent Rose toward the earth and fired, allowing the recoil to propel her high into the air while Weiss loosed a flurry of dust beams at their target.

Freddy was so preoccupied cutting himself loose and shielding himself from Weiss' barrage, he never saw it coming.

Ruby hurtled towards the ground in a flurry or rose pedals and she brought the full weight and momentum of herself and her weapon down on her opponent's head. The blunt end of the scythe caught him squarely on the crown of his head. His aura flashed and broke, and they had successfully incapacitated their target. Ruby tagged him with a beacon so the authorities could find him later, and the two rushed to aid Blake.

Roman continued to retreat. Evidently, he had prepared for such a contingency. The street was crawling with reinforcements. Mostly thugs from Juniour's club bolstered with a few White Fang operatives. And they were squarely in Blake's path.

"We'll deal with them!" Ruby yelled, Weiss right behind her as they caught up to Blake.

Ruby and Weiss engaged the hoard of goons and Blake sprinted after Torchwick.

Blake saw him make a sharp turn down a dark, narrow side street and followed close behind.

The moment she turned the corner, Torchwick fired. Blake recovered and rolled sideways, leaving decoys in her wake and made for the cover of the shadows.

* * *

><p>Ruby's boots collided so hard with her opponent's face, his red shades broke clean in two, along with his nose. On top of her scythe now, she reached around and pulled the trigger. The recoil dislodged it from the ground and propelled weapon and wielder both spinning into their next target. The blade caught him in the chest and sent him flying into another thug. Ruby landed on her feet, back-to-back with Weiss.<p>

Weiss' weapon was a blur. She parried, blocked and struck all with a blinding, flawless elegance. Her glyphs protected her from any wayward blows she failed to turn or dodge.

"Blake's in trouble!" Ruby shouted over her shoulder at Weiss, who was making short word of her tasks. "So is Yang!", replied the white fencer. It was clear that they had to make a judgment call. "Go help Yang! I'll handle this!" shouted Ruby. Weiss disentangled herself from her current opponents and rushed to her teammate's aid.

* * *

><p>Roman frowned. His eyes darted this way and that. His cocksure strut was gone now, along with that smug, satisfied smirk. Even in the darkness, Blake could see his hands shaking. "Come out come out wherever you are, kitty, and I promise I'll make this quick" He said.<p>

The sleepy side street remained deathly silent...

He nearly jumped out of his skin at a slight rustle to his left. He whipped around and fired three rounds into a stack of garbage cans.

And quick as a snake, Blake darted from the shadows from the opposite direction, dealt a quick slash to Roman's back and disappeared just as quick, leaving her decoys to cover her retreat

Roman's knee buckled and he howled in pain. He felt the blood already starting to trickle. They were both critically low on aura, but Blake was in her element.

* * *

><p>Weiss found herself face-to-face with her 4'10 strawberry pink opponent. she noted that her face was dotted with a few small droplets of blood. When Weiss looked behind Neo, she was shocked to see the blonde brawler in a crumpled heap at her opponent's feet.<p>

With this in mind, and without any teammates to back her up, Weiss came to the conclusion that this opponent was too powerful, so she decided that her objective should be to get Yang to safety before attempting to apprehend this new enemy.

With a flick of her wrist, Myrtenaster was leveled to her opponent.

This wasn't going according to plan.

She glanced again at her unconscious teammate.

She turned her attention back to Neo and narrowed her icy blue eyes.

There could be no mistakes now.

Neo smirked mockingly at her as she waited for the girl to attack.

* * *

><p><em>I'm surrounded. That's never good.<em>

Ruby pointed Crescent Rose toward the ground and fired, sending her high into the air. She fired once more opposite her desired direction and landed some 30 metres from the crowd of goons. The group was perhaps half as thin now as it was before she and Weiss arrived, but they still numbered a few dozen. She spun her scythe hand-over-hand, sunk the blade into the road and opened fire.

It was tiresome work, but eventually the thugs and White Fang operatives were defeated or running.

_This is taking too long!_ This operation was supposed to begin and end in that alley, and now their target was on the run and her team was scattered. They hadn't counted Torchwick and Freddy to have such extensive reinforcements at the ready. And now they were paying for their lack of preparation.

She wiped some sweat from her brow and was contemplating her next move when she felt the ground shake.

_An explosion probably._

But she felt it again

And again.

They came steady and regular and louder now. Ruby realized that they were footfalls of some sort...

She turned and saw, down the street, the hulking monstrosity of steel death lumbering toward her. They needed to wrap this up, and fast. Meanwhile, they might need backup. She pulled out her scroll and sent word to teams JNPR and SSSN. Neptune and Sun were closest, so she knew she could count on them to arrive before long.

She reloaded and made ready to buy her team some time.

* * *

><p>Weiss used her glyph to launch herself into the air, before using another mid-flight to launch herself at Neo, who stepped nimbly aside while the strike hissed harmlessly past.<p>

_None of this is working!_

It was like fighting water. Neo was quick to dodge, parry or block each and every strike Weiss threw at her, smirking all the while. However, Weiss noted that she wasn't making any attacks of her own.

_She's trying to wear me down!_, Weiss belatedly realized. And it was working. She was already winded and beaded with sweat, but Neo showed no signs of fatigue. That smug mask hadn't budged an inch.

* * *

><p>Roman heard the heavy footsteps of the Paladin, and knew it might be his last chance to retreat. "Well, it's been fun, but I've got a da-<em>oof<em>" Gambol Shroud snaked around his ankle and yanked him down. The ground came up to smash him and Cudgel slipped from his grasp and skittered across the ground. Blake dashed from the shadows…

My objective is Yang, she reminded herself.

Weiss threw up a small network of glyphs which she used as platforms to reach Yang. She grabbed her teammate and used the last of her ice dust to produce a dome of ice over the two of them.

They were safe for the time being…

* * *

><p>Ruby fired at the large Paladin mech, but her sniper rounds didn't do much. Thankfully, Sun and Neptune had arrived and were currently engaged with the hulking war machine.<p>

Hopefully, this would turn out better than the last time the two of them went up against a Paladin.

The plan was for Sun was to harass it and do his best to dodge its attacks while Ruby and Neptune took turns providing covering fire while the other moved in to assist.

Neptune and Sun danced and skirted their way around the mech. Without their teams, or a cohesive plan of attack, they couldn't hope to bring this thing down, so they decided to distract it for as long as they could.

The plan was working fairly well.

At least it was, until the Paladin's steel fist landed a massive blow squarely in Neptune's chest. Ruby moved in to evacuate while Sun did his best to distract it. Neither of them had much fight left and Neptune was out of commission. Ruby was already exhausted from dealing with the mob and Sun had taken a few glancing blows himself.

It was all Ruby could do to get the casualty to safety, return fire and hope against hope that the rest of the team was faring better.

* * *

><p>Roman scrambled for his weapon and turned to fire. Blake darted forward to swipe it away...<p>

But she misjudged the distance...

And she didn't anticipate that he'd try to sit up..

It was him or her...

All these things she told herself as stood wide-eyed and shaking over her mortal enemy. Gurgling and thrashing on the asphalt, his life pumping and squirting from his throat turning, the ground red.

She had lunged to block his incoming attack, and accidentally cut his throat to the bone in the process.

He was still now. The methodical pumping and squirting from his throat had slowed to a gentle ooze.

Blake's heart was rising to her throat.

She couldn't move.

She couldn't think.

After all this time, nothing had changed.

She was a monster.

Blake stared incredulous at the lifeless corpse in front of her for a long time. At length, she became dimly aware of a small presence at the entrance of the side street. She turned around, and saw Neo, who was staring wide-eyed at the body of Roman.

Tears welled in Neo's eyes.

"I-I'm sorry" Blake said. She hadn't meant for it to come to this…

Neo didn't care. That smirk was gone. The countenance that had been so smug and satisfied moments before was now twisted with fury. She drew her stiletto and plunged headlong at Blake, mute tears streaming from her raging face.

Blake was still frozen. Neo's blade would have found its mark if Akoúo hadn't flashed between the two of them that very moment.

The blade skittered away and Pyrrah pressed the counterattack with Jaune and Scarlet close behind, weapons drawn. Neo bared her teeth in a silent snarl and vanished into thin air. Blake knew she hadn't seen the last of her…

* * *

><p>The cavalry had finally arrived and the battle with the mech was finally coming to an end. Ruby continued to shoot at the Paladin, this time aiming at the points Nora had weakened with her hammer and grenades. She, Ren, Sage and Sun pressed the attack while Weiss tended to Neptune and Yang's wounds. It wasn't long before the Paladin retreated. Ruby collapsed to the ground, finally allowing the full extent of fer exhaustion to wash over her now that the danger was gone. She could hear sirens in the distance.<p>

Blake took a few shaky steps back. Her heart was thumping so hard in her chest, she was sure it would burst. Her breath was catching in her throat and she was sweating profusely. She leaned against a wall and tried to regain her composure. Her vision was blurry. She tried to swallow, but there was a lump in her throat…

And there was an irritating _tap tap tap_ on her foot.

She looked down and realized it was Roman's blood dripping from her sword and soaking into her shoe.

She yelped and jumped back, her weapon clattered to the floor.

Her stomach was reeling.

She felt sick.

She felt disgusted at herself for doing this, and knew she'd never be able to undo what she had just done.

And then she became aware of the silent, judging, cringing eyes at the entrance of the side street.

Her comrades were there. Ruby, Weiss, Scarlet, Sun with Neptune half-conscious over his shoulder, Sage, all of team JNPR. They were all there and every one of them failed to mask the horror on their faces.

"I..I", Blake stuttered. She cringed away. She couldn't face them. She couldn't face her friends now that they knew what she was.

She snatched her weapon from the ground and darted away into the night, deaf to their pleas to wait.

And just like that, she was back to doing what she'd been doing all her life.

Running.


End file.
